Unhappy Reunions
by Follower of Mania
Summary: John never thought he'd see her again. Little did he know that family reunions often happen in the worst places imaginable. Newly minted SpecTRe and Hero of Elysium, he'd never felt more secure in his career path. Jane had reached the low point of her career, and she couldn't be prouder for it. She couldn't wait to see John's face when he met her new friends.
1. Reporters are Dangerous

"Commander Shepard, what are your thoughts on the Feros incident?"

"Commander, are the rumours true, are you being sent after a rogue SpecTRe?"

"Which one of your crew are you involved with?"

"How could you work with a turian?"

"Do you serve the Alliance or the Council?"

It would be an understatement to say that Commander John Shepard hated journalists. They represented the lowest of the low, liars preying on the secrets of others that swarmed people who just wanted to get their jobs done. They got in the way of investigations and stuck their noses where they didn't belong. Tabloid journalists were the worst, always asking about his conquests and romantic history. Of course it was the ones that asked more personal questions that caught his interest. John only had two members of his family obviously connected to him and both of them served in the Alliance Navy with fearsome reputations.

His mother was famous for her work ethic, Hannah Shepard was set for promotion to admiral within the next few years. His older sister, Jane, was known as the Butcher of Torfan and crews cowered when the Major was assigned to their ships.

It was John's general respect for his family and curiosity as to how journalists found out the shared relation that peaked his interest and caused him to stop and talk to the otherwise insignificant Asari reporter who called out, "Are you related to Major Jane Shepard?"

He turned to her, one brow raised in question, "She's my sister, yes."

This caused a wave to wash over the crowd as they whispered amongst themselves and scribbled frantically on notepads. A few of the reporters turned on their cameras or gave instructions to the drones to focus in on this interaction.

The brave reporter probed further, "What are your thoughts on her accident?"

John was puzzled, last he knew Jane was settling in on her new ship and laughing at the terrified whispers that followed her through the ship while she was on deck, "What accident?"

His confusion seemed even more delicious to the reporters as the whispers and scribbles grew in ferocity.

The Asari spoke again, "Have you spoken to your sister about the Zooma incident?"

Ashley pulled on his arm, "John let's get out of here."

John nodded and allowed his friend to pull him away from the crowd. They shouldered their way past question after question as the whispers combined into a frantic buzz as questions hurled at the two Alliance officers. Eventually they made it through the thick of it. All they'd wanted was a few drinks at Flux after seeing the Thorian Creepers on Feros, little did they know that Shepard's reputation had grown out of control and a swarm of reporters would be waiting outside the bar with questions loaded.

They rushed back to the Normandy and Shepard immediately turned to start talking with Ashley, "What were they talking about?"

She shrugged, "Hackett should know."

John pulled up Joker on his comm, "Pull Hackett up in the comm room. Call everyone to the ship and then pull out of dock, these reporters are crazy."

"Tell me about it, everyone's aboard so pulling out now."

John thanked the pilot before jogging to the comm room.

He stood for several frantic minutes before Hackett's voice finally came over the frequency, "Commander, I was told this was urgent."

"What's the status of Jane Shepard?"

A heavy sigh came across the connection, "Who told you?"

John's panic kept on rising, "Is she dead?"

Another sigh came but this one was significantly more relaxed, "So you don't really know," Hackett paused for a breath, "I'm going to need you to investigate a missing Alliance Marine."

"What the hell-"

"This is urgent business that cannot be put off. You need to head to Omega, it's a space station in the Omega Nebula. Speak to Aria T'loak, say that you're searching for Hervor."

John's head was spinning and just as he started to complain again, Hackett cut the connection. John let out a yell and kicked the nearest chair. Pain radiated up his leg but he swung his leg back and kicked the chair again, "What the fucking hell is this!"

His shoulders slouched forward as he forced himself to calm down a little and call Joker again, "Get me Hannah Shepard on the SSV Kilimanjaro!"

Joker sounded scared as he agreed. The Commander's voice had settled into a growl of rage and bewilderment.

"This is Captain Hannah Shepard of the SVV Kilimanjaro."

"Mom? It's John."

"Oh! I don't really have time for a personal chat right now honey, can this wait?"

"What happened to Jane?"

The line was silent.

"Mom?"

"I have to go John."

"Mom! Please tell me!"

"Do you really not know?"

"I was just attacked by a reporter with questions about the 'Zooma incident'. Is she dead?"

"Oh heavens no," Hannah paused, "I wish they wouldn't call it that. It's horrible enough what they did to her…"

John waited for her to expand on the incident. He yelled again two seconds later when Hannah disconnected the call. He kicked the chair a third time before storming out. He shoved Ashley out of his way on his warpath to his room. A sharp command at Joker had their path set for Omega.

He slammed the door shut and opened the Ethernet on his omni tool. He opened a search engine and searched for "Major Jane Shepard."

A tiny, shocked and frustrated sound emerged unwillingly from his throat as he skimmed the first few headings. He reached the fourth and threw his omni tool across the room before throwing himself onto his bed face first and falling asleep.

The headlines read, "Jane Shepard, Butcher of more than Tofan?"

"The downward spiral of Jane Shepard"

"The Butcher of Torfan and the Hero of Elysium Related?"

"Major Jane Shepard Discharged and Exiled from Human Space"


	2. Bars are Dangerous

"Hey! Asshat!" A female human clad in all black Hahne-kedar armour approached a turian male who'd been crowding one of the Asari waitresses in Afterlife. Afterlife being the natural habitat of Pirate Queen Aria T'Loak and the pseudo-government building of Omega, it wasn't the best idea to go around picking fights.

The turian knew this and so his mandibles flexed in the equivalent of a sneer as he stared down at the short, red haired woman. "Excuse me?"

"Step away from the asari, Asshat," the woman stepped into the Turian's personal space, unaffected by the height difference.

"No."

The human smiled, it didn't reach her eyes, and reached around the turian to grab the conveniently empty bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy. Before he could react, she had pulled the bottle around and smashed it over his head. As he flinched, she punched him in the face before kicking him in the stomach. The extra power from her armour's exoskeleton slammed the turian into the bar. She grasped the turian around the throat and drew her M-6 Carniflex pistol and pressed it against his stomach.

"You will never threaten another employee, understand?"

The turian nodded groggily.

"You will accept no for an answer in the future, correct?"

This response was filled with slightly more coherency.

"If I ever see you in this club again I won't hesitate to shoot," the woman released the turian and started to walk away, "Get out of here."

As she took two steps towards the stairs to Aria's couch where the Queen had been watching the drama, the turian started to stand up. On her third step the turian lurched forward and attempted to grab her.

The human hardly had to glance back as she shot the turian between the eyes. The waitress came over to say some rushed words of appreciation before continuing with her job. The crowd hardly paid attention to the dead body and Grizz, Aria's head bodyguard, soon had a krogan mercenary come to move it.

The armoured woman shoved her way through the clumps of dancers to the bottom of Aria's stairway. Grizz attempted to stop her from walking up the stairs but he was quickly dispatched before she went to interrupt Aria's meeting with some insignificant pawn of the blood pack. She grabbed her breather helmet from one of the bodyguards standing on the steps and checked it over. She'd just sent the thing to get it's red N7 stripe painted over and wanted to ensure that the glass hadn't fogged. She finished putting the helmet on just as she reached the top of the platform.

One glance from the human was enough to send the batarian blood pack pawn scrambling. The small red and grey emblem on the upper left side of her armour's chest plate was enough to send any batarian running. The bleeding sword was the mark of only one mercenary.

Aria greeted her new guest, "Hervor, what do you want?"

Hervor sat next to the Pirate Queen, "What do you know about Binary Helix's interactions with a derelict ship? They should've contracted some batarian pirates two weeks ago,"

Aria replied, "You know my price."

* * *

Shepard watched as a krogan dragged a dead turian out of the club.

Liara shifted next to him, "Are you certain that this is where we need to go?"

Garrus watched the krogan throw the body over the railing next to the entrance to the club, "Is there anywhere else we could possibly go to look for this Hervor?"

John narrowed his eyes, "This is where Hackett said we could find Aria. We find Aria, we find Hervor and then I get some answers."

Liara swallowed before squaring her shoulders. Garrus chuckled at her, "After you Commander."

The Commander took his first few steps up the stairs to the club cautiously. Then his confidence grew and he strolled through the passageway leading to the main room. The three ignored the blood stain and drag marks from the turian body and focused immediately on the couch sitting above the elevated platform. A human dressed in black armour sat talking with an asari, assumedly Aria T'loak.

John started walking towards the stairway, slipping through the clumps of dancing crowds. Liara and Garrus left him to conduct business as they headed to the bar.

He was interrupted at the base of the stairs by a turian, "Aria's busy."

The human SpecTRe snorted, "Yeah, I can see that," and tried to push past the turian.

"She's busy," a batarian stepped up next to the turian with his assault rifle drawn.

John retreated then and headed over to the bar to sit with Liara and Garrus. Garrus was chugging his third drink while Liara was slowing nursing her first. The human downed the first of the four shots of miscellaneous alcohol Garrus had ordered him as he profiled the crowd. There were a few humans splattered around but most of the nearby patrons were turians, asari or batarians. There was also a few salarians crowded around a booth in the corner and two krogans having a head butting competition, but salarians didn't often come to clubs like Afterlife and krogans were usually unwelcome.

Garrus started a casual conversation with John about finding some upgrades for the Mako's weapons systems, so the two almost missed Liara's sudden choking sounds.

"Liara?" John asked as he turned to see the asari scientist blushing with her whole face purple. He turned to see what she'd been looking at and immediately started blushing himself as he saw the armoured figure from earlier had taken her helmet off and was kneeling between the legs of the pirate queen, "Oh, oh my..."

Garrus started dragging his two blushing companions out of the club, "I guess we'll come back tomorrow."

* * *

Commander Shepard couldn't look Aria in the eye the next day when he finally got that meeting.

"Commander Shepard, first human SpecTRe," John could feel her bodyguard inspecting him, "I'm unimpressed. What do you want."

"Information on an ex-Alliance Marine named Hervor,"

"Are you tracking her?" Aria finally turned to look at John and she maintained his gaze as he answered.

"Admiral Hackett wants her brought in," John's eyes were focused on the Salarians in the crowd below. He really didn't want to think about what had been happening on this couch earlier... Or ever really.

Aria smirked, "Then you just missed her. She left the station," she glanced down at the clock on her omni tool, "two minutes ago."

John barely refrained from growling, "Where did she go?"

"Hervor does whatever she wants," Aria looked away, signalling a close to the conversation.

John stood up stiffly, "Thank you for your assistance."

* * *

It wasn't Admiral Hackett but Captain Anderson who called Shepard on the comms after he handed in his report. Apparently he was suffering in bureaucracy and Hackett sympathized.

Anderson seemed distraught, "First Saren strikes a deal with the Geth and now Hervor's rearing her head again… you need to find her. Kill her or capture her, so long as her influence is contained."

"Do you know what happened to my sister?"

Anderson rushed out his words, "Do you not know?"

"I think everyone does but me."

Anderson disconnected the call. Shepard kicked the chair again. The chair now had several dents along the side from where it'd been assaulted. The poor thing was bolted to the ground and thus had no escape from the rage of Commander Shepard.

The chair that Urdnot Wrex usually sat on held no sympathy for it's kicked brethren.

* * *

Tela watched as Hervor started yet another bar fight. Barely two hours into their arrival on the citadel and the human had already gotten them kicked out of two establishments. They still had another hour though until the council meeting so as she watched three krogans walk into the seedy wards bar, she picked up the nearest stool and joined the brawl.

Human mercenary and asari SpecTRe soon found themselves fighting back to back as the whole bar joined in on the fun. One dancer managed to dump a whole tray of drinks on the human male who'd been making unwanted advances on her all night. Hervor joined her by smashing a glass over his head and kneeing him in the crotch.

Tela backed up the human when a krogan battle master charged at her from behind by charging him in turn, her biotics pouring out of her and granting her temporary immunity to the surrounding chaos. The krogan lit up his own biotics and the two forces collided in spectacular fashion radiating an explosion outwards and effectively ending the fight. The wave of power knocked over everyone but the ever-prepared Hervor who threw up her biotic barrier to fend it off before returning to looting an unconscious turian.

The two colliding chargers made it out of the impact unharmed but a shockwave from Tela quickly knocked the krogan out.

"Fun?" Hervor's question came as the two started to run for it.

"Always." The two left the devastated mess that once was Chora's Den behind as they fled from C-Sec.

A sliding run made it to the Lower Markets and then a race up the stairs. The partners in crime slipped through the Upper market and into the commons area in front of Flux. Seeing a window, Hervor lit up her barrier and ran for it. She broke through the glass as she jumped through and started to fall into the traffic rushing by below. Her distraction was enough to get C-Sec off Tela's tail as she continued past the Med Clinic to grab their shuttle and take off.

Hervor was free falling past the many floors of the Citadel's skyscrapers. She could hear the wind whipping past her ears and flowing through her hair. Her barrier kept the acceleration from killing her but she could still feel the wind pulling at her skin. Tela pulled the shuttle up just in time as the ground started getting closer and closer to the falling human. Tell pulled up underneath her and slowly started decelerating before catching Hervor, ensuring that the whiplash didn't kill the sometimes fragile human.

Once Hervor was secure within the shuttle Tela started steering them towards the council chambers. Hervor picked up her helmet and put it on, while her face could be seen by camera it was better if none of the human politicians got a good look at her face.

The council did not seem pleased to see them. Sparatus and Valern appearing openly hostile while Tevos just seemed displeased.

"You will have to pay for the window," Tevos started.

"At a minimum! Your actions completely disrupted the order of the wards!"

Valern intervened after Sparatus' outburst, "The wards were never in order."

"C-sec's patrols were!"

Tela coughed, she'd had more than enough experience with the council to understand how to take control of the situation, "Chora's Den was a known hideout of Fist, one of the Shadow Broker's men. He's now dead thanks to Commander Shepard but his old bar remained an ongoing criminal hideout."

Tevos took over, "You have evidence of course?" Hervor stepped forward and placed the red sand she'd taken off the turian on the table. The councillors deliberated for a few seconds before Tevos spoke again, "We deem this evidence acceptable and thus rule that all your actions during the chase today were official SpecTRe business. How did the search for the missing eggs go?"

Hervor delivered this part of their report, "The shipment was taken to Noveria at Binary Helix's lab at Peak 15. We plan to travel there and eradicate any chance of the Rachni surviving through the facility's thermal vents and by blowing the facility up."

Tela interjected, "We'll need a bomb," Hervor helpfully provided a rough visual estimate of the size of the bomb and some sound effects as she demonstrated its demolition.

Tevos seemed amused by the display as she chuckled and nodded her approval. Sparatus seemed ready to retort when a glare from the Asari Councillor silenced him. Valern made several mumbling noises as he calculated the necessary size of the bomb before sending an order to an STG task force to get the necessary materials to Tela's ship and ensure their safe travel.

Hervor and Tela started to leave, but Sparatus called them back, "We have one more concern to discuss with you."

Ambassador Udina walked up the stairs to stand in front of them, "You summoned me?"

"Due to Major Hervor's contributions to Vasir's missions, we believe a second SpecTRe membership should be extended to humanity," Sparatus seemed infuriated by his own words.

" _She_ holds no official rank," Udina refused to even glance at Hervor, "She's a disgrace to humanity! I refuse to let you nominate her!"

Now Sparatus seemed smug as he came to a realization, "The decision is out of your hands."

Hervor spoke up, "I thought that either an ambassador or a council member had to put forward a SpecTRe candidate?"

Tevos smiled, "Tela will assess your next assignment to see if you are ready."

Udina had started glowering and stormed after Tela and Hervor when they were dismissed, "You! Disgrace!"

Hervor turned around and saw that Udina was standing mere inches away from her, "If you mess this up," Hervor interrupted the ambassador when she head butted him.

"There's only one human who gets to boss me around and you sure as hell ain't her," Hervor turned to follow after Tela.


	3. Bombs are Dangerous

Hervor was kneeling on the black carpet on the floor of her cabin. It was a cramped space much like most rooms on cybaen-class Asari ships. Nonetheless, it was uniquely hers with a bloody handprint next to the door, two small but healthy potted plants and a family picture with her brother's face cut out. Her bed was shoved off into the corner and as such provided a small private place for meditation and the occasional yoga session. The small window also had its privileges.

Her off-duty outfit used to consist of Alliance Battle Dress uniform and N7 hoodies. She'd burned those uniforms years ago and now her casual outfits tended to include more leather jackets, cargo pants and sarcastic t-shirts. A recurring favourite was a cartoon depiction of Hervor the Viking head butting a krogan. The merchant who'd sold it to her would probably be getting more business if Hervor went on to become the second human SpecTRe.

The mercenary calmed her breathing and tried not to think of what becoming a SpecTRe would mean. She'd worked hard to avoid detection after her exile and didn't much like the idea of people finding her again.

The door behind her slid open and Tela walked in to sit next to her. Together they sat in silence for several minutes before Tela broke it, "Have you told Aria?"

"Oh she already knows. I'm going to call my mom when we reach Noveria."

Tela replied, "The Broker was pleased with the news. He sent Barla Von with flowers."

"He didn't!"

"The volus did not seem happy about it either."

Hervor laughed, "I'm sure that was a sight to see."

Tela suddenly turned somber, "I hate that you hide yourself."

"They'd kill me if they knew I was still working with you. They already ruined my reputation and forbid me from returning to Alliance space, image what they would do if they realized that I'm not stuck in a Batarian slave camp."

Tela placed her hand on Hervor's knee, "Udina seemed to recognize you did he not?"

Hervor placed her hand over top of the Asari's, "I'm famous enough as Hervor for him to know about me."

"Jane, I am glad I got to meet you."

"Don't go getting all sappy with me! I get enough of that shit from Circles," Jane recoiled from the hug Tela had started to give her.

Tela rolled her eyes, "I wish you would start calling our pilot by her name."

"When she starts flying in a straight line I will!"

Tela laughed before standing up. She extended a hand to Jane and hauled her to her feet, "Spar?"

Jane smirked, "Always."

* * *

Joker seemed puzzled as he watched an asari cruiser depart in what could only be described as a series of interconnected circles. He shrugged before focusing on docking the Normandy at the citadel.

Garrus was leaning against the wall near the airlock talking with Tali. Their next stop after Omega should have been Noveria and as such the crew was puzzled. The Commander hadn't been talking much since this whole mystery with his sister started.

John stood at attention behind Joker though his mind was wandering. As such he didn't see the peculiar flight pattern of the asari cruiser.

"Commander? What are we doing back at the Citadel?" Liara was brave enough to ask the question they'd all been wondering about.

"I need to speak with Barla Von. You can all stay aboard, this should only take half an hour or so. We'll depart for Noveria then.

* * *

It took three days for the cybaen-class cruiser Euclidia to reach Noveria. By some miracle of physics their constant circling and side tracking did not detract from their overall speed. Truth be told it was this contradiction of somehow travelling faster even though they travelled three or four times the necessary distance that kept Lidana, sometimes known as Circles, employed on Tela's vessel. As a matron moving closer to her matriarch stage, Tela had no shortage of followers willing to serve aboard her ship. Hervor found endless amusement in watching those followers throw themselves at Tela in hopeless attempts to gain her favour.

The duo left the ship in orbit and descended to the planet via shuttle. A frigate would've been able to dock on the planet's surface but due to Euclidia's large drive core it was larger than the average cruiser and thus had no hope of docking in Noveria's tiny frozen port. Their landing was immediately greeted by three security officers. The commanding officer, Captain Maeko Matsuo, immediately asked them to surrender their weapons.

Hervor was not happy with this course of events, "Listen here bright eyes, I don't give a shit what your government wants us to do. We're here on SpecTRe business and if you have a problem with my shotgun you're going to have a fucking heart attack because we have a giant ass fucking bomb that we need to carry through here because the universe depends on it and shit like that. So you are going to step aside and let us pass or I'm going to splatter your brains on this concrete."

Tela smiled from behind her associate. The soon to be SpecTRe had drawn her M-22 Eviscerator and had pressed the barrel of the gun into the Captain's throat. Tela spoke up, "We have two hundred pounds of plasma explosives that we need for our mission, is this… What do you humans call it, Hervor? Declaring at customs? Anyways, we will either be proceeding through your security gates unopposed or you will learn what it means fight an asari who's half krogan."

The asari SpecTRe flared her biotics before taking a step forward. The three security guards immediately melted away and the two friends went to retrieve their giant bomb from where it'd been taking up the whole back of the shuttle. Apparently bombs were harder to move than the two had assumed and as such they had a brief struggle getting it out of the shuttle and up the tiny staircases and elevators of Port Hanshan. Once they made it into the lobby they got to shove through several judgemental business men and then Hervor threatened their way into the garage.

Threatening your way through life may not make you many friends, but Hervor certainly found it easier to get what you want.

* * *

When the Normandy docked at Port Hanshan, it seemed as if a tornado had just whipped through. Scratch marks marred the floors and walls and the security team just cowered away from Shepard after he said he was a SpecTRe.

Ashley was confused as to what had been forced into the elevator that caused it to creak and groan with every movement when aside from the copious scratch marks it was unmarked. They got their answers in the form of Gianna Parasini, "Hello! You must be the new SpecTRe, Commander Shepard correct?"

John replied, "Yeah, what the hell happened here?"

"Oh. That was the Asari SpecTRe and her attack dog. No respect for rules those two. I assume you're here to see Administrator Anoleis. I'll let you right on through."

Liara, Ashley and Shepard nodded as the two humans went through. The asari stayed behind to question the secretary, "Have any other asari been through here recently?"

"Aside from you and the SpecTRe? Just one of note, Matriarch Benezia is checking on Binary Helix's assets in Peak 15."

Liara started at her mother's name, "What do they test there?"

"I cannot reveal private client information," The secretary had straightened her posture as Liara seemed to want to push the issue.

"How can we get there? It's important for John's mission as a SpecTRe."

"You'd need a garage pass, Administrator Anoleis could get you one. Why do you want to visit Peak 15?"

"SpecTRe business. Can you tell me what the other SpecTRe did to cause all that damage?"

Gianna suddenly became infuriated, "She dragged a giant bomb through here! Do you know how long it'll take to fix all this damage! Even worse, that renegade mercenary shot at two of our guards as they stormed through to the garage. They have no respect for order!" She coughed at the end of her rant and straighten her skirt.

It was then that John and Ashley reappeared from within Anoleis' office. Liara excused herself from the conversation as the three comrades recapped their findings.

John didn't like Anoleis and made that explicitly clear before revealing his new information, "We need to get a garage pass. The best way to do that should be through charming the pants off of an executive."

Garrus started at that human expression, "What?"

John realized his mistake, "Sorry, human expression we definitely want them to keep their pants on. Or at least I do. I'm not preemptively judging them it's just…" John trailed off when he saw the amused looks Liara and Garrus were giving him, "Ha ha, make fun of the clueless human.

"Let's go find some businessmen to extort."

* * *

"Eat shit, shiteaters!"

"Why did we let Lidana pilot the Mako again?" Tela asked Hervor as she held on for dear life. The Mako they'd 'borrowed' from Port Hanshan was driving round in circles as Lidana drove in her usual fashion while Hervor manned the turret.

"Because I'm adorable!" Circles helpfully supplied before she ran over several more geth troopers.

Tela rolled her eyes and watched Hervor as she fired off rocket after rocket into the never ending influx of geth forces, "Hervor?"

"Still alive."

Just then Circles accidentally drove them up the side of a hill and completed a complicated aerial maneuver with the ground vehicle that resulted in them doing a flip. Tela's stomach did not agree with the sudden changes in direction and she started searching for a barf bag.

"Questionably alive," Hervor said.

"At your six!" Circles' warning ways enough for Hervor to swing the turret around and fire a whole thermal clip of ammo into a geth destroyer, "I've always wanted to say that."

"Lidana, how the hell did you survive in the Asari sixth?" Tela spoke up from where she was having trouble finding a barf bag.

"Dunno. Hervor, maneuver Euclid!"

Tela reentered her search for the bag with renewed vigour as the human and pilot prepared one of their more daring tactics. They had almost reached the garage of Peak 15. If she could just find that bag...

Tela didn't get a chance to find the barf bag.

Circles accelerated forward and the Mako got three of it's four wheels up the cliff. The pilot then swung the Mako off the hill using the left thrusters and started spinning the Mako around on one wheel counter-clockwise. She maintained it's momentum using the energy from the mako's drive core to keep just the gun and the left thrusters moving. They started spinning around and around and several of the untethered objects inside the mako started to rise up off the seats and floor. Hervor completed the maneuver by firing everything they had left from the turret.

Tela threw up in one of her extra breather helmets.


End file.
